Kavanagh Laurence, Keohane Jerome, Cleary John, Garcia Cabellos Guiomar, Lloyd Andrew
EnviroCORE, Department of Science and Health, IT Carlow, Kilkenny road, Co., Carlow R93V960, Ireland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017 May 26;14(6):561. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14060561.
The South East of Ireland (County Carlow) contains a deposit of the valuable lithium-bearing mineral spodumene (LiAl(SiO₃)₂). This resource has recently attracted interest and abstractive mining in the area is a possibility for the future. The open cast mining of this resource could represent a potential hazard in the form of metalliferous pollution to local water. The population of County Carlow is just under 60,000. The local authority reports that approximately 75.7% of the population's publicly supplied drinking water is abstracted from surface water and 11.6% from groundwater. In total, 12.7% of the population abstract their water from private groundwater wells. Any potential entry of extraneous metals into the area's natural waters will have implications for people in county Carlow. It is the goal of this paper to establish background concentrations of lithium and other metals in the natural waters prior to any mining activity. Our sampling protocol totaled 115 sites along five sampling transects, sampled through 2015. From this dataset, we report a background concentration of dissolved lithium in the natural waters of County Carlow, surface water at x ¯ = 0.02, SD = 0.02 ranging from 0 to 0.091 mg/L and groundwater at x ¯ = 0.023, SD = 0.02 mg/L ranging from 0 to 0.097 mg/L.
爱尔兰东南部（卡洛郡）蕴藏着有价值的含锂矿物锂辉石（LiAl(SiO₃)₂）矿床。这一资源最近引起了关注，未来该地区有可能进行提炼开采。这种资源的露天开采可能会以金属污染的形式对当地水体构成潜在危害。卡洛郡的人口略低于6万。地方当局报告称，大约75.7%的人口的公共供水取自地表水，11.6%取自地下水。总共有12.7%的人口从私人地下水井取水。任何外来金属进入该地区天然水体的潜在情况都将对卡洛郡的居民产生影响。本文的目的是在任何采矿活动之前确定天然水体中锂和其他金属的背景浓度。我们的采样方案在2015年期间沿着五条采样断面共设置了115个采样点。根据这个数据集，我们报告了卡洛郡天然水体中溶解锂的背景浓度，地表水的平均值x ¯ = 0.02，标准差SD = 0.02，范围为0至0.091毫克/升，地下水的平均值x ¯ = 0.023，标准差SD = 0.02毫克/升，范围为0至0.097毫克/升。
